


you, or no one

by Senshi



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Blue Lions Route spoilers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-19 15:13:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20211844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senshi/pseuds/Senshi
Summary: Byleth pays Dimitri a visit on the day of his wedding.





	you, or no one

Byleth did not know himself to be a gentle man by any means, but were he not a man who had spent most of his life with sword in hand for coin, for honor, for cause and for _him_— the gesture he found himself in might have been called tender. Wrapped up in Dimitri’s arms, nose buried in the regal garb of Faerghus, silks and furs unable to mask the scent of the man he may have called lover (wanted to call, desperately and perhaps accurately so, but the Love word never came easily), arms losing strength as Byleth folded, relinquished that unyielding grip he had always retained on his own self-control and discipline in favor of slumping against the other man, for the first time in his life unable to stop himself from feeling the tug of heartstrings on a heart he did not have as he exhaled, trembling breath leaving him, making his body shudder in its wake. 

So this what it was like to love. To love so fervently, so desperately, as to leave him breathless and knocked aside as an untethered chime in the wind. He took a deep, broken inhale of air, and tried to, for the last time, memorize Dimitri, immortalize him in the imperfect way that the mind remembers, in bits and pieces. The way Dimitri’s chest rose and fell under his cheek, the firm, resounding beat of his heart, steady and resolute, the way his fingers curled through Byleth’s faded locks. 

“Byleth?” The familiar intonation of his name brought him back to his senses, and Byleth, almost startled, tensed in the embrace, like a child caught with a broken vase. One he couldn’t hope to piece back together, at least in this life. Dimitri’s hold around him loosened, and hands cup his face before a soft breath grazed over his lips. “May I? One last time? 

Ah. The unwelcome nostalgia flooded him. Byleth caught himself, eyes lifting guiltily from Dimitri’s collarbone to meet his gaze, and found steel blue burning into him. The same gaze from seven years ago, when Dimitri had first confronted Byleth with the request. It was just as simple-minded and earnest as the first time, just as boneheaded as the times since.

Byleth pressed forward, lips catching Dimitri’s like he had a thousand times before. Brief, the slightest brush of skin against skin, chaste and reserved, weighted and longing, and then Byleth was pulling back, eyes casting downwards once more. There. It was over. This moment had gone on long enough. They had gone on long enough. His fists clenched in his archbishop’s robes, bringing tension into their embrace. He couldn’t be here, in the Goddess Tower with Dimitri on the day of his wedding to someone else, and as the officiant, no less. He had no heart, and yet, bafflingly, he was still subject to its weaknesses. Dimitri was at the center of it all.

“Byleth.“ A breathy exhale interrupted his thoughts as gloved fingers brushed along Byleth’s neck, trailing upwards to his jaw. “After all this time. You still think that would satisfy me?” Byleth felt Dimitri’s other hand slide downwards, resting on his waist for a split second before he felt fingers digging in, pulling him closer until Byleth’s senses were nothing but Dimitri. The smell of him, the touch of his breath, the piercing leveling of his stare, stripping Byleth’s carefully crafted exterior away. 

Lips met lips again, claiming in him in that relentless and unequivocal way Dimitri did everything else. When the contact waned, Dimitri would only push in further, even more persistent than the last time. Uncompromising, stubborn, every shove of his lips only further reminding Byleth he was not to be forgotten, cast away to a treasured corner of his mind like Byleth had hoped he would have done. 

When Byleth’s lips were sufficiently bruised, and his eyes glazed over in a wavering stare that took him a few seconds to recover from, Dimitri finally pulled back. It was at this moment that Byleth realized truly how tall his student had gotten, how overwhelming his presence had become. He looked away. “Your majesty.” If there was one thing Byleth had mastered by now, it was keeping himself under control. Separate out the things he did not need, and move forward. His voice did not waver as he pushed Dimitri away, unsure himself of where this sudden strength in his arms had originated from. “We should go.” 

There was something in the way that Dimitri’s jaw clenched that Byleth couldn’t place, but he shoved the thought aside. “Of course, Professor.”


End file.
